ASHLEY Bryant conceded a narrow defeat in his race against time after he was forced to pull out of the decathlon on the opening weekend of the World Athletics Championships.

The 22-year-old, from Hammersmith, had been set to make his senior World Championship debut in Moscow but suffered a hamstring tear in the build-up the week before. And, despite working hard on his recovery it was not quite enough to get him to the start line as the men’s decathlon helped to kick-start proceedings in Russia on Saturday.

The admission comes as a huge disappointment to Bryant, who finished fourth at the European Under-23 Championships in Finland last month with a personal best score of 8070.

That was an improvement on his eighth-place finish in Gotzis earlier this year where he scored 7837 and he would have benefited greatly from the experience in Moscow.

Bryant is the latest injury blow to a British team that is already missing Olympic heptathlon champion Jessica Ennis-Hill and he cut a disconsolate figure after pulling out.

"Unfortunately I got a grade one hamstring tear last week," he said. "I knew I’d be up against it to recover but I thought I had a good chance. It was in good shape in the last few days, so I was hopeful. In warm up when I had to push it that bit more it wasn’t ready for the competition. I’m gutted but that’s sport I guess."

But, despite the disappointment, Bryant did find time to tweet his support for his teammates and paid tribute to the support team who had come so close to getting him to the start line.

“Massive thanks to the British Athletics physios and doctors, they worked night and day for the past five days to give me a chance of competing,” he said on Twitter.

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